McAdoo's Homer Swings the Night, Toronto Holds Off Boston 2-1
Charles McAdoo's 373-foot shot to right in the fifth inning swung Toronto's win probability from 40% to 64% — and that single swing was essentially the ballgame. The Blue Jays held on from there, beating Boston 2-1 on August 10.
The story of the night was how quickly this game was decided, and how little Boston could do to fully undo it. McAdoo's fifth-inning home run put Toronto on the board first, and an inning later, Andres Giménez singled to right to score George Springer, pushing the lead to 2-0. Two runs, two innings, and the Blue Jays had everything they needed. Sonny Gray gave Boston six innings and allowed both of those runs on six hits, walking one and striking out four — a workmanlike line that kept the Red Sox in striking distance but couldn't manufacture offense on its own.
Boston's lone run came under genuinely strange circumstances. In the seventh, Ceddanne Rafaela hit a sacrifice that turned into a double play — center to second to first — but an umpire review overturned the call on the field, allowing Anthony Seigler to score while Nick Sogard was ruled out at first. It was the kind of play that gives a team life without giving them momentum, and Boston couldn't convert anything beyond that single run. Rafaela finished 2-for-3 with that RBI, the most productive line in a Boston lineup that managed just one hit through the first six innings against Jameson Taillon and Simeon Woods Richardson. Taillon went four innings, allowing just one hit against three walks; Woods Richardson followed with three innings, giving up four hits and one earned run.
On the Toronto side, the pitching staff did exactly what it needed to do. Taillon's command was shaky — three walks in four innings is not a recipe for comfort — but he kept Boston off the board entirely, and that appears to have been enough of a cushion for the bullpen to protect. Jovani Moran threw two clean innings for Boston in relief, allowing one hit with no walks and a strikeout, but the Red Sox offense never gave him a lead to work with. When the final out was recorded, Toronto had won a tight, low-event game almost entirely on the strength of two swings in back-to-back innings. McAdoo's homer was the turning point; everything else was just Toronto not giving it back.